The Other Fig Tree

On Holy Monday, Jesus curses a fig tree. On Holy Tuesday, he uses a fig tree for a parable of sorts.

“From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near.

33 So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates.

34 Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.

35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Mt 24:32–35). (2016). Crossway Bibles.

I really want to talk about Trump today and the arraignment. Democrats indicted Tom DeLay, Rick Perry, and Bob McDonnell on campaign related issues, and now Trump. There is a lot to be said there about what is to come.

I have a rule that this is the week I don’t use this morning's piece to write about politics. I consider it binding. So let me use radio for politics and my show notes at noon, and here, instead of what is to come politically, let’s discuss what really is to come — fire, death, and renewal.

Eschatology is the one part of theology that people view through their present circumstances. The writers who wrote about the end times before World War I were pretty optimistic about Christ’s 1000 years and the coming glory on earth. World War I, World War II, and the Cold War caused a brutally pessimistic tone.

I’ll be candid in my own thoughts.

Though I am not a young earth proponent, if the record of scripture is taken to its direct ends, there were 2000 years between Adam and Abraham and 2000 years between Abraham and Christ. It makes sense that a God who in scripture operates in rhythms, rhymes, and patterns would set the end times to be 2000 years after the resurrection.

We do not know what day. We do not know what season. But it feels close.

Christianity is the only religion on the planet not geographically anchored. Secularism worships the West even as it rejects the West. Islam has Mecca. Judaism has Jerusalem. Christianity has Christ, and he is unmoored from geography.

Christ could not arrive until the Roman Empire, which allowed his message and the Great Commission to spread globally, slowly. Christ could not return without the internet, modern communication, and video broadcasts so that every head really can bow and every knee bend when all see him coming on a cloud.

Over the last two thousand years, Christianity has spread out in all directions, but most specifically into the West. As it now fades in the West, it returns and grows in the East. There are more Christians in China than there are Americans. Christianity is the fastest growing religion in Iran and Iraq. Like the shockwaves of Krakatoa, Christianity ripples around the world and back to its origins.

Reports of earthquakes have increased and volcanos too, though more from information than a sudden increase in events. Christians have fled Christendom for fake Christianity and Espicopalianism where preachers preach a transgender Christ to itching ears.

Good Christian men and women have left the church to worship at the altar of politics, turning politicians, parties, and causes into idolatry. Even in the church, professing believers preach a Christian nationalism that is rooted in land, not Christ — idol worship in Jesus’s name.

The end seems to be speeding up to ultimate calamity.

And it does not matter.

Christ, in the Spring, noted the fig tree starting to put out leaves. It was a sign that the Immanuel principle had been fulfilled from Jeremiah.

31 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah,

32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord.

33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Je 31:31–34). (2016). Crossway Bibles.

Immanuel, or God with us — there is Christ and we can have a relationship with him now.

The future and your angst about what happens today in New York, tomorrow or Washington, or next year in China does not matter. Christ is with us. We have lived to see His kingdom advance and even as it seems to retreat where we are, it grows more and more quickly.

Read these words. They were delivered on Holy Tuesday — this day almost 2000 years ago:

5 For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray.

6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet.

7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places.

8 All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.

9 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake.

10 And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another.

11 And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray.

12 And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.

13 But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Mt 24:5–13). (2016). Crossway Bibles.

Note verse 12.

We see this among Christians. How many professing believers do you see who now hate the left. They hate the Democrats. They hate the other. They hate the people not with them. They turn on one another and demand rote words, declarations, denunciations, or tweets to prove fealty, worth, or orthodoxy.

Christian Twitterers purge more heretics than Torquemada and usually for failure to profess a political belief, not Christ.

They see an increase in lawlessness. They see institutions rally against their morals and their convictions. So the Believer’s love grows cold. They preclude the gospel instead of preaching the gospel. They proclaim judgment instead of proclaiming Christ. They call out their neighbors instead of loving them because they cannot love those who seem lawless or hostile. They rationalize their opposition to the other side by the other side opposing Christians.

The same Christ who on Holy Tuesday said those words said these words too on the same day:

37 “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

38 This is the great and first commandment.

39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Mt 22:37–40). (2016). Crossway Bibles.

Do not grow cold to others who engage in the worldly sin and vice that opposes us so much so that you cannot love your neighbor who loves the world and does not know Christ.

You must endure this world. You must endure this persecution. You must endure the contempt of the world for you and your values.

Christ makes it possible with both the Holy Spirit and the knowledge that good shall triumph. Christ shall endure. You will endure.

You cannot control tomorrow. You cannot set the timing of the final day. But you can and must endure and you will be given eternity.

If Christ can endure the cross, you can endure today, tomorrow, and the madness to come. Christian, don’t turn cold. If Christ can endure death, you can endure loving your neighbor as yourself.

Endure. The leaves are showing on the fig tree. So bear fruit.